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American Morning
Bush Has Detailed Plan For War Against Iraq on Desk
Aired September 23, 2002 - 09:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush now has on his desk a detailed plan for war against Iraq. Officials say it may not be the final plan. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is meeting the NATO allies in Warsaw today, trying to get their backing for action against Iraq. While the president continues his push to get Congress to give him the authority to take action, our John King joins us live from the White House with more on what all this means.
John, good morning.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
I think we can show our viewers a live picture of Marine 1, the president about to leave the White House, heading up to New Jersey for an afternoon of political of fund raising. But this is another key week. We keep saying this, but another key week in the administration's planning.
You noted, there is a war plan on the president's desk. That is not only meant to show how advanced the Pentagon's planning is, but also to show this president's resolve to act and to confront Saddam Hussein if the United Nations does not join this president and adopt a tough new resolution. Negotiations at the United Nations will continue this week. The United States and Great Britain are also done with the language of a tough new Security Council resolution. The president will try to sell that, despite some skepticism among key allies. And he will try to negotiate Congress the wording of that resolution, giving him the authorization from Congress to act alone or with Great Britain if the United Nations does not go along.
So the president, after some domestic politics this afternoon, but his planning, Secretary Rumsfeld overseas, his political staff here at home, focusing very much on the developing Iraq debate -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, John. Appreciate it.
And as the U.S. is fighting one war, the war against terrorism, will that effort suffer if the U.S. takes on Iraq? Joining me now from New Haven, Connecticut, Ahmed Rashid, a terrorism expert and the author of several books on Islamic extremism.
Welcome. Good to have you with us this morning.
AHMED RASHID, AUTHOR, "JIHAD, ISLAMIC EXTREMISM": Good morning.
ZAHN: So what do you think if the U.S. not only has to continue its war on terror, but takes on Iraq as well at the same time?
RASHID: Well, I think there is enormous concern in Central Asia about this. We have had comments from President Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, by Pakistan, by U.N. officials in Afghanistan, who are trying to reconstruct the country, that a war against Iraq right now is going to distract the Americans from commitments and pledges made by President Bush to rebuild Afghanistan, to provide stability and of course to root out the remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban who are in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
ZAHN: The administration denies all that. They say they very well recognize the commitment they originally made to Afghanistan and will live up to their promise. Why are so you skeptical?
RASHID: I think it's just going to be very difficult. The main issue now is to provide Afghanistan and the government there with the resources to be able to begin reconstruction. I think a lot of those resources are going to be diverted certainly to Iraq and then in the post-war scenario in Iraq, where putting together a government is going to need a lot of political effort, not just by the Americans, but by Western allies, by the Europeans, and a lot of money also, given that you might have American troops garrisoning Iraq for quite sometime to come, once Saddam Hussein goes.
ZAHN: Let's move on to what you think is happening on the ground in Pakistan. Pakistan, of course, seems to be the new breeding ground for terrorism. Two more suspected Al Qaeda members picked up over the weekend. This follows of course Ramzi Bin Al Sheid (ph), who was captured in Karachi in this shootout. Does this indicate to you that President Musharraf is living up to his promise and his commitment to fight terror?
RASHID: Yes, I think Pakistan is. And I think there is now much greater coordination between the U.S. and Pakistan than we have ever seen before. Something like 20 people have been arrested over the last two weeks in Karachi and other cities. I think, you know, there is now a good chance that a lot of the main Al Qaeda figures that are hiding in Pakistan will be caught.
ZAHN: There are people who believe that some of the intelligence services in Pakistan aren't necessarily Musharraf's fans and he's not going to get the help he needs to close up that border between Afghan and Pakistan.
RASHID: No, I think there is a lot of control being exercised by General Musharraf now on the intelligence services. They have been through a clean-out. A lot of people are replaced. A lot of the sympathizers of the Taliban have removed. And I think, you know, certainly, the fact is that Al Qaeda and the Pakistani groups linked to Al Qaeda have made at least three assassination attempts against President Musharraf, so I think this is now very personal. Musharraf has to get rid of Al Qaeda and capture all its members and the Pakistani militants linked to them if he wants to survive.
ZAHN: I want to close with some prominent members of Congress seem to be concerned about, and that is a potential U.S. attack, if there is one on Iraq, leading to a wider Arab-Israeli war. Do you fear that as well?
RASHID: Certainly. I think in the Muslim world, there is enormous concern about that, especially if we see over the weekend that the Israelis might retaliate and might join the attack against Iraq. That will certainly be seen by the Arab world as an Israeli attack on an Arab country, on a Muslim country, and it will create enormous interest and protests right around the Muslim world, I think.
So how the Americans can contain Israel in not joining this, just as they tried to contain Israel in the first Gulf War, I think will be watched very closely.
ZAHN: We are going to leave it there this morning. Ahmed Rashid, we really appreciate your dropping by this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 23, 2002 - 09:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush now has on his desk a detailed plan for war against Iraq. Officials say it may not be the final plan. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is meeting the NATO allies in Warsaw today, trying to get their backing for action against Iraq. While the president continues his push to get Congress to give him the authority to take action, our John King joins us live from the White House with more on what all this means.
John, good morning.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
I think we can show our viewers a live picture of Marine 1, the president about to leave the White House, heading up to New Jersey for an afternoon of political of fund raising. But this is another key week. We keep saying this, but another key week in the administration's planning.
You noted, there is a war plan on the president's desk. That is not only meant to show how advanced the Pentagon's planning is, but also to show this president's resolve to act and to confront Saddam Hussein if the United Nations does not join this president and adopt a tough new resolution. Negotiations at the United Nations will continue this week. The United States and Great Britain are also done with the language of a tough new Security Council resolution. The president will try to sell that, despite some skepticism among key allies. And he will try to negotiate Congress the wording of that resolution, giving him the authorization from Congress to act alone or with Great Britain if the United Nations does not go along.
So the president, after some domestic politics this afternoon, but his planning, Secretary Rumsfeld overseas, his political staff here at home, focusing very much on the developing Iraq debate -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, John. Appreciate it.
And as the U.S. is fighting one war, the war against terrorism, will that effort suffer if the U.S. takes on Iraq? Joining me now from New Haven, Connecticut, Ahmed Rashid, a terrorism expert and the author of several books on Islamic extremism.
Welcome. Good to have you with us this morning.
AHMED RASHID, AUTHOR, "JIHAD, ISLAMIC EXTREMISM": Good morning.
ZAHN: So what do you think if the U.S. not only has to continue its war on terror, but takes on Iraq as well at the same time?
RASHID: Well, I think there is enormous concern in Central Asia about this. We have had comments from President Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, by Pakistan, by U.N. officials in Afghanistan, who are trying to reconstruct the country, that a war against Iraq right now is going to distract the Americans from commitments and pledges made by President Bush to rebuild Afghanistan, to provide stability and of course to root out the remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban who are in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
ZAHN: The administration denies all that. They say they very well recognize the commitment they originally made to Afghanistan and will live up to their promise. Why are so you skeptical?
RASHID: I think it's just going to be very difficult. The main issue now is to provide Afghanistan and the government there with the resources to be able to begin reconstruction. I think a lot of those resources are going to be diverted certainly to Iraq and then in the post-war scenario in Iraq, where putting together a government is going to need a lot of political effort, not just by the Americans, but by Western allies, by the Europeans, and a lot of money also, given that you might have American troops garrisoning Iraq for quite sometime to come, once Saddam Hussein goes.
ZAHN: Let's move on to what you think is happening on the ground in Pakistan. Pakistan, of course, seems to be the new breeding ground for terrorism. Two more suspected Al Qaeda members picked up over the weekend. This follows of course Ramzi Bin Al Sheid (ph), who was captured in Karachi in this shootout. Does this indicate to you that President Musharraf is living up to his promise and his commitment to fight terror?
RASHID: Yes, I think Pakistan is. And I think there is now much greater coordination between the U.S. and Pakistan than we have ever seen before. Something like 20 people have been arrested over the last two weeks in Karachi and other cities. I think, you know, there is now a good chance that a lot of the main Al Qaeda figures that are hiding in Pakistan will be caught.
ZAHN: There are people who believe that some of the intelligence services in Pakistan aren't necessarily Musharraf's fans and he's not going to get the help he needs to close up that border between Afghan and Pakistan.
RASHID: No, I think there is a lot of control being exercised by General Musharraf now on the intelligence services. They have been through a clean-out. A lot of people are replaced. A lot of the sympathizers of the Taliban have removed. And I think, you know, certainly, the fact is that Al Qaeda and the Pakistani groups linked to Al Qaeda have made at least three assassination attempts against President Musharraf, so I think this is now very personal. Musharraf has to get rid of Al Qaeda and capture all its members and the Pakistani militants linked to them if he wants to survive.
ZAHN: I want to close with some prominent members of Congress seem to be concerned about, and that is a potential U.S. attack, if there is one on Iraq, leading to a wider Arab-Israeli war. Do you fear that as well?
RASHID: Certainly. I think in the Muslim world, there is enormous concern about that, especially if we see over the weekend that the Israelis might retaliate and might join the attack against Iraq. That will certainly be seen by the Arab world as an Israeli attack on an Arab country, on a Muslim country, and it will create enormous interest and protests right around the Muslim world, I think.
So how the Americans can contain Israel in not joining this, just as they tried to contain Israel in the first Gulf War, I think will be watched very closely.
ZAHN: We are going to leave it there this morning. Ahmed Rashid, we really appreciate your dropping by this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
